Lowry ruled out for Game 5. And Butler says Heat is ‘not going to stop’ approach vs. Young
The Miami Heat won without starting point guard Kyle Lowry in Game 4, and it will be without him again in Game 5.
Lowry was listed as out for Game 5 of the Heat’s first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday at FTX Arena (7 p.m., NBA TV and Bally Sports Sun) because of a strained left hamstring.
Ahead 3-1 in the best-of-7 series, the Heat can eliminate the Hawks and advance to the second round with a victory Tuesday.
Lowry, 36, left Friday’s Game 3 in the third quarter after sustaining the injury and hasn’t played since. He watched Sunday’s victory from the Heat’s bench at State Farm Arena.
In the regular season, Lowry’s strained hamstring would likely force him to miss more than a week. But he has been pushing to play through the pain in the playoffs, with a return depending on whether the Heat feels comfortable clearing him.
With a comfortable 3-1 series lead, the Heat will continue to take a cautious approach and sit Lowry in Game 5 to give him more time to recover. Even if the Heat closes out the Hawks on Tuesday, its second-round series wouldn’t begin until this weekend at the earliest, which would give Lowry at least a full week off after injuring his hamstring Friday.
Without Lowry in Game 4, the Heat started Gabe Vincent at point guard. Vincent is expected to start again on Tuesday.
Lowry’s absence also created playing time for forward Caleb Martin and guard Victor Oladipo off the bench Sunday. Martin logged a playoff career-high 19 minutes, and Oladipo made his Heat playoff debut in Game 4.
Without Lowry this season, the Heat has posted a 13-7 record.
The Heat listed P.J. Tucker (calf) and Martin (ankle) as questionable, and Vincent (toe) as probable for Game 5. Except for Lowry on Sunday, every player listed by the Heat as questionable has played.
The Hawks listed Bogdan Bogdanovic (right knee soreness) and Clint Capela (right knee hyperextension) as questionable for Tuesday’s game. Lou Williams (low back discomfort) remains out for Atlanta.
SHUTTING DOWN TRAE
Four games into the series, Hawks star guard Trae Young is still working to solve the Heat’s elite defense.
Young hasn’t made much progress, as he totaled just nine points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-10 shooting on threes, one rebound, five assists and five turnovers in the Hawks’ Game 4 loss to the Heat. After being held to single-digit points in just one game during the regular season, Miami has held Young to single-digit points twice in the first four games of the series.
“I haven’t been guarded like this . . . consistently since like high school,” Young said Sunday night. “Obviously, it’s way better competition, so it’s hard for me to score a lot more through the double-teams and face guards.
“If you’re watching the game, you see that they have five people in the paint when I have the ball, so they’re doing a great job of showing help and not letting me get into the paint. When I’m driving, if I try to drive by somebody, they’re sending a double and forcing me to kick it to my teammates.”
Young, who averaged 28.4 points and 9.7 assists in the regular season, has averaged just 16.5 points on 35.1 percent shooting from the field and 7-of-33 (21.2 percent) shooting on threes and six assists through the first four games of the series. He has a total of 24 turnovers and 24 assists, and the Hawks have been outscored by 19.4 points per 100 possessions in Young’s minutes.
With the Heat throwing a wave of extra defenders at Young to close driving lanes every time it appears he has a small window of space, his drives are down from 17.3 per game in the regular season to eight per game in the first round. That has helped to limit Young to just two shots per game from within the restricted area after averaging four shots at the rim per game in the regular season.
Without as many opportunities to get into the paint and collapse the defense, Young’s potential assists (any pass to a teammate who shoots within one dribble of receiving the ball) have also been cut to 12.3 per game in the playoffs. He averaged 17.2 potential assists in the regular season.
“I’m sorry, but when you’re that ignitable, we’ve got to send three, four bodies at you at a time,” said Heat star Jimmy Butler, who has spent 37 possessions as Young’s primary defender in the series. “I’m sorry we’re the team that has to do that to you, but we’re not going to stop.”
According to NBA tracking stats, Vincent has spent the most time as Young’s primary defender. Vincent has limited him to 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field during 68 possessions on Young in the playoffs.
Tucker has spent the second-most possessions defending Young during the series, followed by Lowry, Butler and Martin.
“You’ve just constantly got to have your head on a swivel if you’re him because it’s like ‘Are we blitzing? What are we doing?’” Butler said. “Half the time, I don’t even know what we’re doing to tell you the truth, but we’re just playing hard and trying to keep him off the free-throw line.”
With just one more Heat win eliminating the Hawks, Young is running out of time to find solutions.
“You have to give them credit,” Young said. “We have to do a better job of getting more open looks and getting them off me early so I can create not only for myself but my teammates.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 4:00 PM.
